Does Medical Marijuana Really Help? (Durango: purchase, price, shoppers)

[Sally_Sparrow]

To answer the question asked in the OP I can only share the experience of a loved one.

This person suffered a serious back injury in adolescence and has chronic pain throughout the body. In addition to pain they suffer from seizures that have never been treated effectively by the usual meds, numbness in the extremities, loss of control (legs buckling, unable to walk, hand randomly dropping things).

They have also failed to respond to ANY of the usual pain meds prescribed by doctors over the years. So they were not opposed to Vicodin, whatever, if those meds had helped at all but they, for whatever reason, don't have any effect. It's like a sugar pill for this individual. The ONLY thing that has ever helped with their chronic pain has been marijuana. It also seems to drastically reduce the incidence of seizures and the other issues mentioned (docs have said that the seizures are worsened by stress that comes on as a result of intense pain so that makes sense).

It's ridiculous IMO to have to choose between suffering or breaking the law. It's just inhumane, really.

[Mike from back east]

Is it gonna snow?

The tight-ass white-ass Gazette published a great piece today that will bring tears to the eyes of most parents, a little girl was helped, saved even, by MMJ.

Excerpt: "Her seizures have dropped from 1,200 a month to three, and the ones she has are shorter in duration and less severe. She's off all the other medications with their troubling side effects. And, as one of the youngest medical marijuana patients in Colorado, her dramatic turnaround is starting to draw national attention..."

An awesome story about a 6-year old named Charlotte Figi and her mom, Paige Figi. After reading this story, you'll know why we have a Mother's Day....

[Colorado^]

How the federal government of this country keeps cannabis as scheduled 1 (no medicinal value) in light of overwhelming evidence to the contrary defines explanation. Unless that explanation involves corruption and payoffs. Oh that's right, it not corruption and bribes, it's called "campaign donations" and lobbying.

I hope the all rot in hell.

Even Sanjay Gupta knows what's up

Craig Ferguson - Marijuana Documentary - YouTube

[allprolab]

Originally Posted by Mike from back east

The tight-ass white-ass Gazette

I laughed.

Wonderful story. It's disgusting how much power the pharmaceutical industry has. There's a reason they spend millions and millions of dollars to keep cannabis illegal. They know it works. Imagine what we can find out if we can actually do legal studies and experiments.

[DurangoJoe]

https://www.freespeech.org/video/76-...-marijuana-use

Any questions?

[Mike from back east]

Originally Posted by Colorado^

How the federal government of this country keeps cannabis as scheduled 1 (no medicinal value) in light of overwhelming evidence to the contrary defines explanation. Unless that explanation involves corruption and payoffs. Oh that's right, it not corruption and bribes, it's called "campaign donations" and lobbying.

I hope the all rot in hell.

Even Sanjay Gupta knows what's up

Craig Ferguson - Marijuana Documentary - YouTube

Agree. The alcohol lobby is powerful....brewers and distillers in many jurisdictions and retail sellers in every jurisdiction are a powerful force with hundreds of millions in lobbying cash to influence 535 members of the "we're for sale" club that meets in DC in a big white building with a dome on top. This is what keeps alcohol legal and MJ illegal. Billions in sales are at stake.

It's obvious that MJ has many medical advantages, from the story of Charlotte Figi to my own sister's experience back in MD when radiation and chemo made her sick as hell, the only thing that helped was MJ.

There is a move afoot in DC to begin the process of re-evaluating MJ with an eye to moving it into the same class as alcohol. This move to take MJ off of Schedule I is in the "Legality" thread, found here.

Speaking of alcohol, today, we have a report that TEN PERCENT of deaths in working age adults are alcohol related.

Excerpt from article: "The 88,000 deaths annually from 2006- 2010 included acute causes, such as violence, alcohol poisoning and car crashes, as well as the health effects of prolonged over-consumption of alcohol, such as liver disease, heart disease and breast cancer. Excessive drinking shortened the lives of the people who died by about 30 years each, for a total of about 2.5 million years of potential life lost. Seventy-one percent of those who died were males."

THAT should be a sobering statistic for anyone. It works out to TEN deaths per hour, TWO HUNDRED FORTY deaths per day, EIGHTY EIGHT THOUSAND per year.

Stats from the drug war indicate ZERO deaths per year from MJ. ZERO.

[ELCO5280]

Originally Posted by Mike from back east

Agree. The alcohol lobby is powerful....brewers and distillers in many jurisdictions and retail sellers in every jurisdiction are a powerful force with hundreds of millions in lobbying cash to influence 535 members of the "we're for sale" club that meets in DC in a big white building with a dome on top. This is what keeps alcohol legal and MJ illegal. Billions in sales are at stake.

It's obvious that MJ has many medical advantages, from the story of Charlotte Figi to my own sister's experience back in MD when radiation and chemo made her sick as hell, the only thing that helped was MJ.

There is a move afoot in DC to begin the process of re-evaluating MJ with an eye to moving it into the same class as alcohol. This move to take MJ off of Schedule I is in the "Legality" thread, found here.

Speaking of alcohol, today, we have a report that TEN PERCENT of deaths in working age adults are alcohol related.

Excerpt from article: "The 88,000 deaths annually from 2006- 2010 included acute causes, such as violence, alcohol poisoning and car crashes, as well as the health effects of prolonged over-consumption of alcohol, such as liver disease, heart disease and breast cancer. Excessive drinking shortened the lives of the people who died by about 30 years each, for a total of about 2.5 million years of potential life lost. Seventy-one percent of those who died were males."

THAT should be a sobering statistic for anyone. It works out to TEN deaths per hour, TWO HUNDRED FORTY deaths per day, EIGHTY EIGHT THOUSAND per year.

Stats from the drug war indicate ZERO deaths per year from MJ. ZERO.

They've created the Charlotte's Web strain (I think after Charlotte Figi) that is higher in CBD and lower in THC thus the user get's the medical aspects without the high, which is perfect for kids. Parents are flocking to CO to help their children.

Charlotte's Web: the families using medical marijuana to help their kids | Society | theguardian.com

[brightdoglover]

Regarding the deaths related to alcohol, while I agree that alcohol certainly has some deadly aspects, including heart disease and breast cancer is a bit of a stretch (and increases the numbers by a lot). I saw that article elsewhere and thought it was a bit much to include those major causes of death as alcohol related.

[Sonic_Spork]

For what it's worth, my old man has taken up MJ in recent months. His psoriasis is decreasing dramatically, and the really amazing thing...it is affecting his sleep apnea.

Prior to this, his sleep apnea was really severe. He snored loudly and stopped breathing many times, every few seconds to few minutes, all night. He got a CPAP, and was using that with good results. Then he started smoking, and I noticed with some annoyance that he was forgetting to put on his CPAP. At first I'd wake him and remind him to use it. Then one night as I got ready to do so, I realized, he was sound asleep and not snoring and quietly breathing just fine. I continued to listen, he continued to quietly breathe. The next night I did the same. I've been paying attention, and what once disturbed his sleep and mine is now conspicuously absent. I'm astonished to say...I think MJ might have cured his sleep apnea!

* note- other variables must be considered. Since onset of pot smoking, he is not consuming much alcohol, before he was a moderate to heavy drinker. The pot has actually decreased his appetite (these strains don't appear to give people the "munchies") and while he is eating less, especially in the evenings, he has not lost weight. Also, the pot may be reducing his overall stress. So those factors can't be ruled out as possibly affecting his sleep apnea symptoms or lack therof.

[Mike from back east]

Story in today's WaPo that the FDA is about to approve the first medicine derived from MJ. The drug Epidiolex treats epileptic seizures and has been unanimously recommended for approval.

Excerpt: "The medication is an oral solution containing highly purified cannabidiol, or CBD, which is one of scores of chemicals in the cannabis plant. It contains only trace amounts of the psychoactive element THC, and does not induce euphoria. For those who have long argued that cannabis offers medical benefits, an FDA approval would be a milestone, “a recognition that the plant is a rich source of compounds which have potential therapeutic activity,” said Justin Gover, chief executive of GW Pharmaceuticals, the London-based company that developed the drug. “We are just scratching the surface of what could be a range of cannabis-based medications.”